SpaceX rocket explodes after landing

by Jackie Wattles and Robert McLean @CNNTech January 18, 2016: 11:03 AM ET

SpaceX rocket explodes on landing

SpaceX's latest attempt to land a rocket upright on a platform in the Pacific Ocean failed in a spectacular fashion on Sunday.

The unmanned mission, powered by a SpaceX rocket, accomplished its primary goal of carrying a satellite into low orbit. But its secondary goal -- to land the rocket upright on a floating platform called a droneship -- ended in a fiery explosion.

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk posted a video on Sunday night of the botched landing on Instagram, showing the rocket setting down softly but then toppling over and exploding on impact.

Sunday's launch was the fourth attempt by Elon Musk's SpaceX to safely land a rocket at sea.

Rockets are the portion of spacecrafts that provide the boost for liftoff, but they're typically discarded after launch. Companies like SpaceX that make rockets are working to perfect landing the rocket safely so they can be reused.

Rockets are expensive. SpaceX rockets cost between $60 million and $90 million. So the ability to reuse them would significantly reduce the cost of space travel.

SpaceX conducted Sunday's launch, which was made from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, for NASA. The satellite that was launched into space, named Jason-3, will measure ocean levels on the Earth's surface.

This was the second successful mission SpaceX has carried out since disaster struck in July. That's when SpaceX's rocket exploded shortly after launch, destroying an unmanned spacecraft carrying supplies to the International Space Station.